Loyal Servant: Journey to mastery
by Nexus of Dark World
Summary: In exchange for becoming my path to greatness, my path to Hokage I shall bring down the Hyuuga clan, my dear Hinata, this is my promise of a lifetime" Dark/smart/skilled Naruto. story revolves around Naruto gaining allies, getting stronger and plotting.
1. Genius glare, fake demon appears

Loyal servant – a journey to mastery

Loyal servant – a journey to mastery

Summery: What if Naruto was a hidden genius, with skills the likes of which hadn't been since Uchiha Itachi's childhood climb through the ranks? What if he merely used his 'idiotic mask' through the academy to protect himself from the villagers? Watch Naruto as he drops his mask and uses the kage buushin's effects early on to quickly become a powerful shinobi in his Gennin years. What if he took Hinata under his wing as his partner and mate…?

Prologue – genius glare, the fake demon makes its appearance!

Deep within the forests of Konoha one would find themselves witnessing an interesting scene as the chilling wind hissed through the dark foliage and the full moon's silvery light cascaded through the tree limbs, casting all in a pale light. Several miles from Konoha's defensive wall deep within one of the many forests that surrounded the said shinobi village one would witness the betrayal of a shinobi and the birth of a legend.

Mizuki a young silver haired man whose hair hung elegantly around his lightly tanned face stood proudly amongst the trees, one would have considered him attractive if not for the viscous look of hate, vindictiveness and satisfaction marring his features. He was dressed in typical chuunin attire; blue trousers, blue zipped jumper with a green sleeveless chuunin jacket over that.

Below him lay a fellow chuunin instructor leaning against an old oak tree, covered in deep cuts and bleeding heavily, his breath was ragged. He gazed up at Mizuki with anger, confusion and resignation in his dark brown eyes.

'Why did you betray the village…Why did you do this to Naruto?' asked the tanned skinned ninja referring to his betrayal and revealing the truth of the Kyuubi. The smirking Mizuki who calmly removed the second fuuma shuriken strapped to his back replied

'That's simple Iruka I needed someone to steal the scroll for me and the nine tails kid was the best choice as none will be angry with him dead, I'll be a hero among the villagers and I'll soon have the _scroll of forbidden sealing_ and I'll have access to all its kinjutsu, hahahaha!' throwing back he let out a quick bark of dark laughter. Iruka's eyes tightened slightly and announced in shock

'All this was for power and Konoha's petty revenge?' at this the young demon container hidden not twenty yards away focused his attention on the conversation between the two chuunin, before him lay the forbidden scroll with several kage buushins copying out various jutsu that Naruto believed would prove to be useful in the future onto individual blank scrolls.

'Carry on with the copying, I'll deal with this' whispered Naruto quietly to his clones, shifting his position so he could watch as well as listen.

'Of course Iruka you naive fool, power is everything in the shinobi world and I refuse to continue in this weak willed village, and of course I want revenge on Naruto, he is the fox after all, you saw the look in his eyes before he took off with the scroll, the eyes of a beast, he'll use the scroll to get his revenge on the village for sealing him.

Naruto paid intimate attention to Iruka at this point, calmly drawing four kunai from his pouch strapped to his right leg.

'_Whether or not you die today will respond on your next few words Iruka-sensei' _

smiling inwardly Iruka replied in a calm voice 'you're right that's how beasts are' at this Naruto's eyes flickered red for a moment and Mizuki's smirk increased, that changed at Iruka's next words.

'That is how beasts are, but not Naruto, his a clumsy, knuckle head, determined young man who wants to be Hokage, his not the fox'

'_Iruka…thank you…_' thought Naruto making ten clones and sending them off in various directions around the two chuunin

'…_But that Naruto is a fake, I'll appear for the first time in Konoha as myself…Mizuki I will kill you in this premature showing of me' _thought Naruto rising to a standing position, charging up chakra in his legs he prepared to move.

After hearing Iruka's words, a look of wild anger crossed his face 'you Kyuubi loving bastard I was going to kill the kid first but now I take you out first!' announced Mizuki charging forward like a bullet of a gun, spinning the fuuma shuriken in his hand ready to kill the injured shinobi.

Slumping forward slightly, a small flickered across Iruka's face

'_So this is the end huh?'_ but the attack never connected as Naruto launched out of the foliage dealing a powerful knee strike to Mizuki's stomach catching him completely off guard and following through with a sickening elbow strike to his face breaking the Chuunin's nose and sending him crashing into the ground. Not allowing a moments' pause thirty kunai shot towards Mizuki from multiple angles, the first three connected, gasping out in pain. 'Fucking brat!' he caught the fourth and used it to narrowly parry and deflect the other projectiles.

'Not bad Fox but it'll take more than that!' laughed Mizuki pulling out a scroll and summoning a ninja short sword, swinging it in a low arch he shouted out 'Come on demon fox I'll show you how a real ninja fights!' Vanishing he reappeared behind Naruto running him through only for Naruto to laugh as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

'_A kage Buushin!? ' _turning quickly he parried a lunge from another Naruto which was quickly dispelled by a slash of Mizuki's sword; the kunai in the clone's hand was wrapped in an explosive tag.

'Oh shit!' a small explosion followed, hurling the chuunin into a small nearby tree. Struggling to stand Mizuki heaved up at least a pint of blood of the grassy ground, coughing violently.

'_Shit I lose at this rate, damn fox' _looking at Iruka some twenty meters away still unable to move, an idea hatched inside the silver haired man's head.

'Time to die Iruka, Kyuubi!' roared Mizuki throwing his weapon with great force towards Iruka, cutting through the air it soon connected, not hitting Iruka, but passing through two of Naruto's clones and impaling the real Naruto through the chest who stood a few inches in front of Iruka.

'Excellent move teme…I didn't have much choice in the matter' muttered Naruto falling onto one knee, his black shirt and orange jacket quickly became a sickly red colour as blood seeped from his wound.

'Naruto!' shouted Iruka in fear of his young student. Mizuki took several steps forward and laughed 'How's that demon? I told you that you were no match for me…Now to end it slowly and painfully…you damn fo-!' suddenly stopping as he was pieced by six blades, courtesy of the remaining kage buushins, who dashed in surrounded him and had skewered him in a circle.

The remaining blood splashed across the ground, Mizuki's eyes rolled back and he collapsed in a puddle of blood, gurgling pitifully. The clones stood back and dispelled themselves as they couldn't be maintained for much longer. Naruto laughing quietly removed the blade with a small hiss of pain escaping his lips as the blade slid out of his chest. The large wound had already begun to heal, thanks to the Kyuubi's influence, one the mysteries about himself had been solved his fast healing that had healed after each and everyone of the violent attacks he had undergone under the hands of the villagers.

'Naruto…' began Iruka, but stopped when Naruto turned around, his eyes were blood red and slitted, like a cat's…no a foxes. 'Naruto is that you?' he asked a little afraid, upon seeing those eyes again. Naruto's hand covered his eyes for a moment.

'Yes sensei it's me' replied Naruto lowering his hand revealing his normal blue orbs as opposed to the demon's just a moment before.

'I'm sorry this happened to you Iruka-sensei' said Naruto quietly, crouching down now eye to eye with the scar faced chuunin 'I knew what he was planning, but I went along with it because I had a chance of learning some high rank techniques…I never wanted you to become involved' with full honesty, his words lacked the idiocy and his eyes showed genuine regret and intelligence.

Smiling slightly Iruka replied 'You've really been behind a mask all this time huh Naruto?'

'Hai sensei, its about time I drop it, be prepared Iruka for the changes' said Naruto slowly standing up and looking off to the left 'The ANBU are here, late as always' replied sardonically watching three animal masked shinobi appear in the clearing.

/

(_Three days later) _

Naruto was in his small, sparsely decorated apartment looking over the numerous articles of clothing, armor and large weaponry that lay out before him. Seated Indian style he held up the various articles and items and pondered his choices, these items were to be apart of his shinobi clothing and gear, Naruto had stolen and bought these various things over the last few years in preparation for his entry into the ninja world, along with his idiot persona, he would abandon his mask and his orange clothing which just screamed 'Kill me!' After numerous thought he decided upon the following clothing for today's wear and quickly clambered into them, which consisted of: A sleeved black collarless shirt which clung to his lean muscled frame, but did not limit his movement, jounin style trousers, though these were black as apposed to the typical navy blue; which ended just above his ankles. It had 6 different pouch style pockets sewn into it for easier access to weapons and other shinobi tools in battle.

He deciding not to wear typical shinobi sandals, instead he decided upon black leather boots with steel toe caps and a half inch blade protruding out of the heel, perfect for adding a little more fatality to reversed kicks and heel drops.

Next was a dark maroon armor which was shaped to cover the pectorals, shoulders and the back, it was smooth, rounded and fit him near perfectly. Over that he wore a black trench coat that ended a few inches above his ankles, the inside of the jacket was a polymer fabric which had been dyed a dark orange (_think Ibiki's but orange on the inside_). Next came two black arm guards, small, almost oval in shape which blended into his jacket's colour very effectively. Next came his new set of goggles which covered the top part of his face, they were green tinted and hid the colour of his eyes.

His Konoha Hiate he hung from his neck, keeping his jugular safe, the blue band hand been replaced by a longer black one, and the metal band with the Konoha leaf symbol on it had been painted over with a light grey paint to remove the shine that could in future reflect light and give away his position in a mission. Finally came a black face mask that covered everything below the eyes (_same as Kakashi's_). Spending several minutes looking in his bathroom's mirror he smirked in satisfaction at his new look, he was now longer the iconic orange knucklehead, he now looked like a serious shinobi in war time, perhaps a Jounin or the like, though admittedly he was too short to pass as a jounin.

'Less than 5ft is not an intimidating sight' Naruto chuckled to himself, walking away from the mirror, crouching down in front of the remaining articles of clothing, which were essentially very similar to what he was currently wearing, moving over to his weaponry, selecting a dozen weapon sealing scrolls, he carefully placed them into various pockets/pouches on his person and picked up and black katana style bokken and using a black waist cloth as a belt he used it to sheathe the bokken. Smiling again under his mask he turned and quietly left the apartment, pausing to lock the door,

'Well that's done ninja away!'

Naruto then shushined away to a nearby training facility, where he would get much more than he bargained for.

/

A/N - Well everyone what do you think of my story so far, this story's gonna have some major plot differences from the original anime, hopefully you'll like it, if not I don't mind constructive criticism but you'd still better carry on reading it

: )

Also the next chapter of journey to Lordship will be out in the next 2 – 3 days so be sure to look out for it

Next time: Shadow master VS Weapon master, impressions made – let the burning youth EXPLODE!!


	2. Naruto Status

I've received quite a few emails about Naruto's skills so before I update I thought I would enlighten you about what he knows so far and what he will learn in the next few chapters. Please remember that while he be much stronger and smarter than the cannon series, he still had his training stunted so far by the village, his greatest weapon is his strategies and his Kage level chakra. But he will increase in skill and experience very quickly thanks to his Kage Buushin.

OK then here's Naruto-Kun's stats:

**Family Name**: Uzumaki (name selected by Sandaime Hokage, real name unknown)

**First Name**: Naruto

**Age**: 13

**Height**: 4ft 5inches

**Weight**: 47.8 KG

**Physical strength**: Low Chuunin

**Speed**: Low Chuunin

**Chakra Control**: Low Gennin

**Chakra Capacity**: Kage Level

**Taijutsu**: Basic Academy and Brawler

**Ninjutsu**: Replacement Jutsu, Henge, Grand Fireball Jutsu, Mud Bullet, Earth Barrier, Kage Buushin, Shuushin.

**Genjutsu**: None currently

**Bloodlines**: None

**Special Powers**: Kyuubi's Chakra, Demonic eyes, Accelerated healing and regeneration

**Ninjutsu that Naruto learns in the next few chapters**: Kage Shuriken, Kage Kunai, Kage Imitation, Daibakuha Buushin, and Kitsune Hi.

Now Naruto is about as strong as a Chuunin, however with his powerful techniques and huge stamina he is able to take on much stronger opponents, which has held true even in the crappy cannon series of Naruto. But he is lacking in experience which is a major drawback...for the time being anyway.

Now I'll try to update in the next few days, and be sure to check out my Journey to Lordship, I did update a few days ago and one of my longer chapters yet.


	3. Battle of Shadows, Earth and Steel

Journey to Mastery

CHAPTER TWO

The contest between Shadows, Earth and Steel: LET THE POWER OF YOUTH EXPLODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Without a doubt today was one of the worst series of days in her life to date, why you may ask? The reason being that the young weapons user's teammates Rock Lee and Hyuuga Neji were currently taking residency in the hospital after a particularly viscous spar left both with near-life threatening injuries; however this was not what was ruining her day. The two polar opposite Taijutsu specialists beat each other to a bloody pulp on a regular basis with never lessoning vigour. What 'was' pissing her off was that she now had to deal with three times as much of her ridiculously eccentric sensei; Maitou Gai. Her green spandex wearing, bobble headed sensei unable to lesson his "flames of youth!" as he called it; TenTen had found herself being trained to use the inner gates and the Jyuuken.

Without a doubt he was a man far too set in his ways of teaching, with only one available student he was trying to get the remaining student in his care, namely herself do keep the pace for all of them, an insanely focused man who wasn't aware that doing the exact same routine with only 1 member. Was not physically possible, even though her father had tracked down Gai in the previous evening and beaten him into the ground after he'd found out that Tenten had being such unreasonable training for close to a week, Tenten was none the less in an incredibly bad mood, she was physically and mentally drained, sick of her sensei's outbursts, and not having anyone to vent out on.

After all her serious attitude towards ninja life and her hard work ethic made it close to impossible to connect with girls in her own age group, as unfortunately the newest generation of Kunoichi in Konoha were filled with love-struck fan-girls and didn't get along with a girl who actually put her full efforts into this rather risky occupation.

Pulling out several kunai and twirling them absently Tenten turned smoothly, hurtling them towards a small target on the other side of the training force with grace, surprising force and deadly accuracy; however something...or rather _someone_ was unfortunate enough to appear between her kunai and the _intended_ target. By means of a Shuushin a masked rather warlike shinobi appeared in a swirl of the traditional swirl of green leaves his back facing her.

"Look out!" shouted out Tenten, shocked, hoping that this ninja would dodge in time otherwise his back would be littered with blades. Turning slightly the blond masked ninja's eyes widened in surprise, unseen by Tenten he made a single seal. At that moment the kunai pieced him in various places on his back.

"Gah!" he collapsed heavily onto his front.

"Oh Kami are you OK?" asked Tenten rushing forward, but stopped when she felt a kunai against her throat and the shinobi on the ground disappeared in a puff of white smoke.

"Kage Buushin?"

"Correct, a truly versatile Jutsu, now mind telling me why you attacked me just now?" asked the masked boy, calmly and yet with authority.

"?"

"And I don't want to hear some crappy excuse like that you were trying to improve my reaction time in response to ranged weapons, like my former so called teachers, now depending upon your answer I may decide to send you to intensive care"

"_That arrogant prick, it was a bloody accident...but wait his sensei's tries to kill him?"_

"Well?"

"It was bad luck on your part to Shuushin as I was practicing my target practice, if you looked around you you'd see that Baka" muttered Tenten angrily, though Naruto could tell from her eyes and body language that she wasn't lying.

The black clothed shinobi looked around see several dozen targets of various sizes positioned on the trees surrounding them; all but one target was riddled with kunai, shuriken and senbon.

Sweat dropping slightly, Naruto looked at the young ninja properly for the first time, she appeared to be around 14 years of age, and was dressed in a light pink Chinese style shirt and traditional shinobi trousers and blue sandals, She was slightly tom-boyish in appearance, her figure was less feminine than the average Kunoichi and the muscle tone on her body indicated that she took her physical training very seriously, Naruto silently approved of that, too many female ninja had made mockery of the name Kunoichi by being fan girls and in the pursuit of their "loved one" allowed their training and skills to fall to a pathetic level.

"Hmm, I guess so, it seems this training ground is already taken, too bad" muttered Naruto under his mask, removing the kunai from Tenten's throat and sliding it back into weapons pouch.

Stepping back he leapt up to the trees and was about to go look for an untaken training area when a kunai cut through the air towards him, turning his body slightly to the right, the kunai passed harmlessly by and embedded itself in to the unfortunate tree in front of him.

"?!"

Tenten grinned up at him "Who said you could go? I need someone to slash up for training and lucky me you come along and piss me off"

"So you want a match then?" asked Naruto, gathering a small amount of chakra to his legs. Tenten draw several kunai into both hands and gave a nod.

"This guy looks pretty tough, so I should be able to vent out a bit and train at the same time" thought Tenten preparing to move

"_She seems to be in a bad mood, none the less it doesn't seem to be personal or related to the fox, so I'll play along...Besides I haven't fought anyone in my age group outside of the academy, let's see how I fair"_

"bring it" said Naruto leaping high into the air, using the chakra he'd gathered to his legs he rose to a considerable height, reaching into one of bringing his knees up as he fell he reached into one of his weapons pouches pulling out three shuriken, spinning once for added momentum he hurled the three projectiles towards Tenten.

Crouching and then skidding to the right she avoided the shuriken, and with the professional ease of one who had practiced with weapons since infancy then sent the kunai in her hands flying in quick succession through the air towards the blond nin, Naruto dodged the first, knocked the second and third away with his arm guard, the fourth pierced his hand however, and the fifth one hit him square between the eyes.

"!" Naruto fell back only to disappear in a puff of grey smoke.

Quickly moving away from her spot she narrowly avoided three kunai which embedded itself into the ground where she had been only half a second ago. Turning she saw Naruto squatting on one of the thicker branches in the trees, his goggles hid his eyes, but the upwards crease in the mask indicated he was smiling.

"Nice reaction time... miss?"

"It's Tenten, no need for a 'san' or 'Chan"

"Well using 'Chan' would be rather fun. But if you insist..." replied Naruto at the same time throwing two kunai at her, Tenten effortlessly dodged them, her eyes however widened in surprise as she noticed these kunai had explosive tags wrapped around their handles.

"Boom"

"!" the two kunai then exploded, Tenten quickly leapt back narrowly avoiding the brunt of the small blast.

As she jumped back, unseen to the smoke and debris, Tenten reached for a scroll, in one swift motion unrolled it and unsealed something...

-***************************************************************-

Up in the tree Naruto was sorely tempted to charge in, a trait born from his years under the mask of the hyper active knuckle-head, Naruto shaking his head slightly suppressed that urge, with the obscured vision and her apparent weaponry skills, charging in blind would then be putting himself into a very difficult situation, or as a certain Nara would say "Troublesome"

(A/N: _Every time you say 'troublesome', and then do something about it – Orochimaru will love-hicky one of your enemies_)

Making the familiar cross shaped seal, in a puff of smoke, three clones of himself then appeared, the first two quickly hid themselves while the third replaced himself with the original.

The smoke and dirt debris quickly settled, revealing Tenten holding a mid ranged weapon, the weapon consisted primarily of a long grey pole; about 6ft in length, surmounted at the top of the weapon were three blades, the main blade pointed up like a spear, with the other blades sprouting from the base of the centre blade at a 90 degree angle on either side. _I_

"A three-bladed Naginata huh? One hell of a weapon you got there" said Naruto's shadow clone, in a light conversational tone.

Tenten smiled and twirled the weapon once, before leaping into the air, Naruto's Kage Buushin in response drew two kunai and held them tightly in hand to defend himself, and Tenten held the Naginata horizontally up then swung downwards. Naruto narrowly blocked the attack, using his arm guards and kunai to stop the attack. The slide blade stopped barely an inch from his face.

"Not nearly enough Buushin-san" said Tenten, adjusting her stance and angle of her weapon slightly, Naruto's eyes widened, the centre blade and one of the side blades had a shot at his neck.

Placing her right hand on the butt of the staff section of the weapon she quickly forced the weapon upwards, the kunai couldn't stop it and the Kage Buushin was instantly decapitated, it vanished in a puff of smoke. Meanwhile elsewhere Naruto shuddered as one of his clones last moments entered his memory banks.

"What a brutal girl" muttered Naruto quietly creating three more shadow clones that then immediately dispersed themselves into the surrounding area.

"And she's made the ideal weapon choice; it's capable of being a Bo-staff, a spear, a sword, and a sickle at the same time, she is able to keep me at a distance and can attack and defend in a vast range of different ways." Naruto's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched his clones attack from the foliage only to be effortlessly destroyed by Tenten as soon as they entered her weapons range.

"Che, I can't win with just my clones and weapons, there's a big cap in our weapons skills and I'm not fast enough to get in close...I hate using the Jii-sans Jutsus outside of training, but I don't have much of choice" Naruto muttered to himself.

Making a cross shaped seal for the Kage Buushin Naruto, using a rather large amount of chakra created fifty Kage Buushin.

"Hide in the surrounding area and attack her blind side in groups of twos and threes and I'll attack her at long range with Ninjutsu "muttered Naruto to his Kage Buushin.

"Understood boss" they quickly vanished

"Kamen-Kun" Naruto heard a deceptively sweet voice behind him; Tenten had apparently gotten tired of waiting for him and had quickly located him, swinging her Naginata in a sharp sweeping motion across his chest.

"!" Naruto was very thankful for his upper body armour, the blade couldn't get past the armour, but the force behind Tenten's attack sent him flying backwards, landing in a heap he coughed up a little blood.

Sensing another attack coming he narrowly rolled to the side, the area of ground he had been occupying a fraction of a second ago was now rather thoroughly stabbed courtesy of a certain bun headed Kunoichi.

"Yeah I definitely need Jii-San's jutsus" muttered Naruto quickly getting back to his feet, moving his right leg back and turning to the side he narrowly diverted Tenten's Naginata and launched a left hook at Tenten's face. Tenten switching to one hand, caught the punch, and tightened her grip so Naruto couldn't pull back, loosening the grip of the weapon hand, she adjusted her grip so her hand was slightly below the blade, allowing her to stab effectively at close range.

"My win" announced Tenten

"Nope" replied Naruto, pointing with his free hand, Tenten suddenly realised she couldn't move her weapon forward, turning her head ever so slightly she saw one of Naruto's Kage Buushin holding the butt of her Naginata grinning under his mask.

"So you had more of those troublesome shadow clones hidden huh Kamen-San?" asked Tenten calmly.

"Naruto"

"What?"

"My names Uzumaki Naruto, though I don't mind being called Kamen" replied Naruto, quickly breaking her grip on his hand he leapt back.

Ten of his hidden Kage Buushins appeared in front of him, acting as a protective wall.

"Here we go Tenten" announced Naruto making four seals in quick succession; he gathered his chakra to the ground around him and the inside of his mouth

"**Doton: Mud Bullet**!" out of his mouth erupted a compacted ball of mud towards Tenten, the young Kunoichi then slashed the mud bullet in half, at that moment the earth Jutsu turned in liquid mud, blocking her frontal view for a brief moment. In that time three of Naruto's clones ran forward, while Naruto made another set of seals.

"**Katon: Grand Fire Ball**" after finishing the final seal, Naruto took a deep breath and using his chakra to ignite the air, and propel it, he released a large burst of fire from his mouth, which took on a spherical shape as it ripped through the air towards Tenten.

Tenten saw the fire Jutsu quickly approaching, Tenten prepare to leap out of the way but to her surprise The three Naruto Clones had used to distraction of Naruto's Earth and Fire Jutsu for them to get a-hold of Tenten's troublesome weapon.

"Shit"

"You need to let go or your gonna get burnt" stated one of Naruto clone grinning

Tenten grit her teeth she looked extremely pissed, at the last possible moment she let go of her Naginata and narrowly avoid the flames. Naruto's three clones were dispelled by the fire Jutsu, Tenten's weapon while too well crafted to be destroyed had its surface super heated however, she could no longer wield it until it cooled down, otherwise it would badly burn her hands.

Back behind his clones Naruto made another set of seals and grinned

"_That annoying weapon is dealt with finally, now what to do..."_

Tenten landed and quickly pulled out two scrolls from her rear item pouch.

"_Sealing again...I was right"_

"**Soushouryu**" announced Tenten the two scrolls seemingly exploded in a large cloud of smoke out of the smoke erupted skyward two criss-crossing pillars of smoke, which resembled two Chinese dragons for a brief second. The smoke cleared revealing them to be the fully unravelled scrolls; twisting loosing around each other, Tenten suddenly appeared at the top the scrolls so fast Naruto could have sworn she used a Shuushin.

"Naruto I'm gonna end it with this!" she announced looking down at her target below.

"I take it this is your ace...But it won't be enough" Replied Naruto calmly, he had already made the seals, he had already gathered the chakra, whatever her technique was it wouldn't reach him...Hopefully

Tenten began spinning at a high speed, her hands shooting out in quick motions and unsealing a variety of bladed weapons and then throwing them at Naruto.

Naruto was impressed, in the space of about three seconds he had over a hundred weapons closing in on him

"_That's one hell of a weapon-seal combo"_

"**Doton: Earth Barrier**" Naruto slammed his hands into the ground, the ground cracked and a large brown wall of chakra compacted earth rose speedily from the ground, as a shield from Tenten's ace attack. The wall was 12ft in height and 10 meters in length, it was at least 5 meters thick. A split second after Naruto's Jutsu formed a storm of weapons rained down upon Naruto's defensive wall.

The sound was borderline deafening as the various weapons impacted, some impaling, others bouncing off the wall.

Tenten continued to summon weapons from the two scrolls, hurling them with increasing effort and speed as she fell towards the ground.

"_I'm gonna get to him!"_

"_She'll go around the wall soon_" thought Naruto adding more chakra into the earthen defence in front of him, as several weapons had cracked the wall in places and several and even made it partly the way through, Naruto couldn't allow the wall to fall yet, not until she gave up on attacking head on.

Tenten landed onto the ground, leaping back into the air gathering chakra and then expelling through her muscles the young weapon focused Kunoichi was able to greatly increase the height of her jump. Her two scrolls fell past her and landed in a crumbled pile on the ground. One of Naruto's many clones was keeping an eye out on Tenten's movements; as one of the weaknesses of this Jutsu while good as a defensive technique it obscured the caster range of sight, making it relatively easy attack them on their blind side. Having a number of clones to serve as both physical defence and to watch the opponent's movements eliminated that weakness.

Naruto clone 3 noticed light reflecting off what appeared to be... a Wire! Quickly alerting "Boss" Naruto and the other clones that there were wires attached to the hilt of each weapon.

"That sucks" announced one of the clones

"Yeah because of them Tenten can keep jumping up to reuse that weapon combo of hers" agreed the clone who had originally spotted the wires

Tenten as she reached the top of her jump pulled up her arms back and using the ends of the wires tied to her fingers via a small spark of chakra she pulled perhaps as many as a hundred or two weapons out of the ground whirling her arms back she used the wires to re-throw the weapons at the earth wall.

"!" Naruto's eyes widened in shock as he realized that Tenten had jumped forward as well as up, the wall no longer provided perfect protection, at her angle and height she could hit him with some of her weapons

"Better get moving...Kage Buushin no Jutsu!"

Tenten seeing Naruto creating 12 shadow clones she quickly moved to dispel them by throwing 13 of her bladed weapons in quick and deadly succession, the original Naruto, hearing them approach used one of his clones as a spring board to avoid the weapon that targeted him. His clones an instant before they were dispelled by Tenten's attack each launched a kunai at her. Quickly angling her body she dodged the first few, and wiping back her arms she intercepted the Clones kunai with some kamas and 4-point shuriken.

Tenten continued to fall, her eyes suddenly widened in shock

"Shit I lost sight of the squirt!" in the few seconds that Naruto's clones had countered and Tenten had blocked Naruto had once again hidden himself.

"Oh you think" said an amused sounding voice behind her.

"!" spinning she narrowly avoided Naruto who drew the bokken strapped to his waist and lashed out with a horizontal sweep, Tenten easily dodged, but it wasn't her body he was aiming for, it was her wires that she was using for her weapon seals combo;** Soushouryu**. Naruto's Bokken had become tangled in her wires, effectively stopping her Jutsu, if only for a little while.

"Take this!" exclaimed Tenten quickly angling back she kicked Naruto in the chest, who gave her his trademark foxy grin under his mask and vanished in a puff of grey smoke. Suddenly felt her arms being pulled down, quickly looking down she was surprised to see at least a hundred Kage Buushins. Most of whom were holding a handful of wires and weapons, looking up at her grinning, the little folds in his mask, the only indication of this. Tenten however couldn't have possibly missed the downright mischievous look in the clones' blue eyes; his goggles had come off at some point in the fight.

"OK everyone...HEAVE HO!" yelled clone 68

"DON'T YOU DARE!" screamed Tenten as she has yanked down out of the air, as the clones heaved in unison; keeping a tight grip on the wires and weapons, not giving the young weapons mistress an opportunity to use them.

"_Che..."_ Gritting her teeth in frustration she detached the strings from her fingers, she landed seconds later and quickly leapt away from the clones, the clones releasing the weapons charged after her before Tenten could gain any distance. The Kunoichi quickly dispelled several of the clones closest to her with a quick series of hook punches and low kicks, but Tenten soon found herself surrounded by Naruto's Kage Buushin army.

"Let's get her!" yelled out a random clone, the rest of Naruto's Buushins' roared in approval and charged in, Tenten pulled out two Kunai and got into a loose combat stance.

"Bring it Buushin-Yaro!"

(_5 minutes later_)

Tenten was tied to one of the trees, looking rather bruised and ruffled. Before her stood the short black masked shinobi that had bested her, the blond shinobi just stood there as though admiring his handiwork, when out of nowhere he said

"You should stop being a weapons specialist" Tenten couldn't believe her ears

"Wha...What did you just say?"

"You'll never become an effective Ninja until you widen your skill variety, learn some elemental Jutsus, a little Genjutsu as well wouldn't go amiss, besides your _Buuki _and _Fuin-Jutsu_ you have practically no back up, if you battle an enemy whom your weapons cannot reach you're royally screwed. You're still a Gennin if you specialize too early you will stunt you're growth"

Tenten stared at Naruto, completely shocked

"Are you looking down on my skills? This better not be because I'm a Kunoichi"

"No" responded Naruto immediately "I'm not looking down on your skills, it was mere advice, well thanks for the spar, I needed to evaluate myself anyhow." Naruto turned and began to walk away.

"Hey aren't you going to untie me?!" yelled out Tenten struggling to get out of the rope binding her.

"My aren't you a feisty one...Don't worry I'm sure you're Jounin sensei will unite you..." he paused "...BunBun" a reference to her hair style, Naruto grinned as she turned red then exploded verbally with the following response

"It's not BunBun, It's Tenten!"

"What's the difference" Naruto laughed disappearing in a swirl of leaves indicating the use of a Shuushin teleportation Jutsu.

"Ugh that Bastard" muttered Tenten angrily to herself.

"His right you know Tenten" stated a voice to her right, turning her head she saw her Sensei Maitou Gai decked out in his usual green spandex suit, orange leg warmers and Jounin accessories.

"You will need a wider set of skills, though your weapon skills can be called genius, there are many methods to beat weapon only users, you are a ninja and must be unpredictable in combat. But don't worry I Maitou Gai will guide you through the springtime of YOUTH!"

Though feeling stung from her Sensei's words regarding her skills, she had to ask the question.

"Gai-Sensei?"

"YES TENTEN?!" responded Gai enthusiastically

"How long have you been here?" Gai leaned in a closer, as though to whisper something, he entered the good guy pose with a thumbs up thrust out in front of him, gave her his trade mark gleaming sparkle smile and said

"Since the beginning!"

"_I knew it!"_ seeing Tenten's response as perhaps embarrassment, he quickly untied her and shouted out "DON'T BE EMBARRSED BECAUSE OF YOUR LOSS TENTEN, LET US EXPLODE THROUGH THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH, AS I TEACH YOU SOME JUTSUS, TO TRAINING FIELD 11!"Gai quickly took her arm and leapt into the air, into the trees.

"Put me down Sensei I can tree jump myself!"

*

*///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////*

*

Well there you go I finally decided to update this one, now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go finish the last part of my Journey to Lordship chapter, see ya later!

*

_Translations:_

_Kamen = Mask_

_Naginata = Japanese Cross spear _

_Soushouryu = Twin Rising Dragons_

_Buushin-Yaro = Clone Bastard_

_Buuki = Weapons_

_Fuin Jutsus = Seal Techniques_

_*_

Next Chapter: Recalling: A Promise to a Hyuuga


End file.
